To further strengthen its portfolio of networking, wireless and consumer products, Freescale Semiconductor has acquired CommASIC, a fabless semiconductor company based in San Diego, Calif. CommASIC provides modem-processing multimode technologies, including orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based solutions, such as WiFi-certified 802.11 a/b/g. These solutions enable low-cost wireless broadband capability in a wide variety of mobile and consumer devices that require maximum energy efficiency for long battery life, without sacrificing style, weight or performance.

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"This acquisition gives Freescale a base architecture and system expertise that can be leveraged across any OFDM-based technology such as wireless-LAN, WiMax and Digital Video Broadcast (DVB)," said Sumit Sadana, Freescale's senior vice president, strategy and business development. "CommASIC's flexible, programmable, ultra-low power baseband architecture will complement Freescale's portfolio of offerings for networking, industrial, wireless and consumer markets."

According to the 2005 ABI Research WiFi forecast, an estimated 350 million devices will have embedded WiFi by 2010. Freescale plans to offer integrated WiFi technology for OEMs to leverage in next-generation products such as cellular and VoIP handsets, personal multimedia players, computer peripherals and other consumer devices.